Article Summary of The storyscapes of teenage pregnancy. On morality, embodiment, and narrative agency - Cense & Ganzevoort - 2019

What is this article about?

Pregnant teenagers tell different stories about their experience. Their stories are influenced by normative discourses. How the meaning of teenage pregnancy is constructed depends on stigma and social norms, but the embodiment of pregnancy also plays a significant role.

Teenage pregnancies are associated with poverty and considered a risk for sexual active girls. American, European and Australian public health polices follow the neoliberal ideology, which sees an individual as rational and being capable of self-care and autonomy. Youngsters are encouraged to have sexual control and act responsible in order to prevent unplanned pregnancies. However, the (individual) choice regarding reproduction clashes with the (societal) imperative to avoid teenage pregnancy. An unplanned pregnancy is considered the result of behaving careless. The neoliberal ideology reinforces the belief that a teenage pregnancy is shameful. The negative portrayal of teenage pregnancies by sexual health policies worsens the stigmatization. Not every pregnant teenager has a negative experience. Scholars call for a re-examination of the normative discourses regarding teenage pregnancy and being a mother at an early age.

The aim of this study is to contribute to this re-examination by investigating how young Dutch women negotiate the meaning of abortion, motherhood and teenage pregnancy in the current normative landscape. Strategic negotiations refer to the process of understanding, reproducing and reworking existing narratives on teenage pregnancy. The question is: How do girls situate their families, themselves and their choices of reproduction in a broader social context? This involves recognizing how policies, relationships and social norms influence how individuals see themselves. When telling their stories girls develop and express narrative agency, which refers to the capacity to weave out (fragments of) narratives to make sense of herself as an individual.

Motherhood can heavily influence a young woman’s construction of responsibility and morality, and it gives them new life directions and a new identity. Instead of social exclusion, teenage pregnancies can also lead to social inclusion. However, teenage motherhood can also have negative consequences regarding education, poverty and stigmatization.

When it comes to abortion, The Netherlands is considered a liberal country. Although abortion is easily accessed, safe and legal, many people and media question the morality of it. Nearly half of the Dutch young women who underwent an abortion felt ashamed and even more kept it a secret. Women perceive abortion stigma from their social environment, which refers to a negative attribute ascribed to females who decide to end their pregnancy that labels them as inferior to the ideals of being a woman. Their decisions go against social norms, which evokes stigmatization from their social environment. As a result, abortions are kept a secret, which causes suppressed emotions, loneliness and psychological distress.

Pregnancy is also a bodily experience, better known as ‘embodiment’. This refers to the experience of perceiving, experiencing and living in the world from the material and physical place of the body. A study found that pregnant women have changed perceptions about their bodies and sexuality and obtained more social space. On the other hand, the social position of pregnant teenagers restricts the possibilities of the embodiment of pregnancy. They are at the bottom of the ‘motherhood ladder’ and have to try harder to perform a socially accepted pregnancy.

The strategic negotiations of girls to give meaning to their pregnancies, and thus to adolescent motherhood or an abortion, are considered a continuous process in interaction with discourses and social norms, moral judgments, opinions, their visions of the future, their sense of self and the embodiment of being pregnant. This study involves the stories of Dutch women. The Netherlands stands out as it has one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in the world. Their sexual health policies follow the neoliberal ideology. Investigating the narrative and embodied agency of teenage girls contributes to better youth-friendly counselling practices and support.

What method was used?

The findings from a qualitative study (2015) among women from The Netherlands who experienced unplanned pregnancies when they were under 20 years old formed the basis of this paper. 46 participants aged 17-25 were interviewed. 16 of them underwent abortion. The women had various ethnic backgrounds and most came from disadvantaged backgrounds (low level of education and income, dysfunctional family life).

The study used a life history approach to explore how young women construct the meaning of teenage pregnancy in the context of their lives. Life stories are useful for evoking details about subjective experiences. The concept of storyscape creates a multidimensional and meaningful landscape of meanings that invites people to envision themselves as inhabiting that landscape. How does someone construct a life narrative to respond to the narrative world that was presented? This results into the negotiation of possible meanings with someone’s narrative context. The negotiation involves two stages: referential negotiation and performative negotiation. In the ‘referential negotiation’, the material reality is turned into narrative. In the ‘performative negotiation’, the narrative is turned into behavioral reality and material. How pregnant women tell the story of their pregnancy within their life story and the normative discourses represents the referential negotiation. How girls navigate the interaction with their community is shown through performative negotiations. The women are embedded in several storyscapes defined by contrasting and different audiences. Their narratives are used to change, maintain or shape the relationships with their audiences (partners, friends, parents).

Interviews are a form of storytelling. Participants were asked to create their ‘lifeline’ on a graph with a happiness-axis and an age-axis. This narrative technique visualizes life events in a chronological order and helps understanding the meaning of experiences. Topics can be talked about as part of a broader story, which prevents the whole life being interpreted according to one specific theme. Example of a lifeline is: a high level of happiness at the age of 12 (first boyfriend), a low level of happiness at the age of 15 (break up) and at the age of 18 (abortion). The interviews were coded according to the thematic narrative technique. Narratives of experiences are stories that create order, establish connections with other people, make sense of events and contain emotions. The researchers looked for normative discourses in the life stories and how the women navigated them, and the meaning they gave to their choices and pregnancy. They also analysed the storyscapes: how did the women negotiate discourses on falling pregnant and making the right decision, how did the embodiment of the pregnancy play a role in the negotiation and how did they develop narrative agency?

How did the women negotiate the meaning of falling pregnant?

One participant felt foolish and embarrassed about falling pregnant at 17, but proud after the birth. This story illustrates two opposite attitudes towards distinct discourses on teenage pregnancy: shame (for losing control) and pride (for gaining a new position in society). The majority of the life stories showed that the pregnancies were preceded by difficulties in their private situation (abuse, neglect). As a consequence, many girls were in (bad) relationships at an early age. The meaning of falling pregnant is influenced by the social context of teenage pregnancy. In the stories, three moral discourses stood out: destiny, individual responsibility and failure, and being young and ignorant. The last one is associated with the narrative about losing control and first love. The responsibility discourse is connected to the narratives about feeling guilty, ashamed and foolish. The destiny discourse relates to fate (“everything happens for a reason”). The three discourses form a storyscape in which the girl’s naivety indicates that she is unable to take full responsibility and is thus unable to develop agency as it is a matter of fate. These can be considered counter-narratives.

How did the women negotiate their choices?

With regard to their decision to continue or terminate their pregnancy, the narratives again showed different moral normative discourses. One discourse is thinking of being pregnant and having kids as a gift. Some women could not go for abortion as they considered it immoral. Other narratives were continuing the pregnancy out of fear of never becoming pregnant again or because others are unable to have children. The second moral discourse was the right of children to have a good upbringing. The women mentioned the need of having a home, an education and a job before having a child. Some feared their relationship would fail and the child would have no father around. Most of these worries come from the general worry of being too young. Thirdly, some women expressed not being able to look after themselves, and the consequences for their child’s and their own well-being.

The three discourses together form a storyscape of responsibility, with the leading question: How can you responsibly deal with the situation? Some accept the gift of new life, others decide they are unable to care for the baby or themselves. All cases have responsibility in common.

What influence has the embodiment of being pregnant on making the right decision?

One girl expressed that the bodily experience of being pregnant made it more difficult to terminate her pregnancy. The bodily experiences (feeling the baby grow and kick) made others rethink their decision: they continued their pregnancy. The opposite – the bodily experience made them want to terminate instead of continue the pregnancy – never happened. Some participants associated the bodily experience of the pregnancy, giving birth or undergoing an abortion with past experiences like sexual abuse. The embodiment of pregnancy evokes various experiences (discomfort, happiness etc.) that challenge the moral and rational agency of girls and influence their choices. The bodily experience of birth and abortion can also evoke memories of intrusive bodily experiences.

How does a narrative agency develop?

Unplanned pregnancy is a turning point in the girls’ life stories. Teenage girls have to deal with the judgments of their boyfriends and parents regarding the right decision. Many girls mentioned conflicts. Some participants conformed to the expectations of others, while others considered the pregnancy a breakthrough that changed the relationships with their boyfriends and parents. The life stories revealed the struggles and patterns of negotiations. The different stages in their lives show several storyscapes.

One participant was raised by an overprotective, depressed and demanding mother. When she hit puberty, she tried to escape from the situation, but was sexually assaulted at the age of 12. She became an insecure teenager and started a bad relationship with an older man at 18. Her mother’s storyscape of female dependency, vulnerability and anxiety was dominant during her youth. The girl tried to break away from this storyscape, but was assaulted, which confirmed her mother’s storyscape and worsened her self-image and fears. When she was eager to be an adult at 18, she still dealt with the storyscape of female vulnerability embodied by her controlling boyfriend. Her pregnancy made her feel more afraid and dependent, which fits the female vulnerability storyscape. The narrative also shows her resistance towards her situation as she mentioned wanting to become more independent. Her parents and boyfriend blamed her for falling pregnant and pressured her into having an abortion, although she agreed that she was not fit to be a mother at that time. The anger about the way she was treated was the starting point of another storyscape. When she fell pregnant again at 21 and was pushed to terminate the pregnancy, she stood up against them and decided to keep her baby. She left her mother’s and boyfriend’s storyscape and felt in control. Her lifeline demonstrates an increased happiness from that moment on.  

Another participant came from a religious family and fell pregnant at 18. Sex was never mentioned and she had no romantic experience when she had her first sexual encounter. She felt lonely and ignorant at the time, and was persuaded by her boyfriend. Her life story starts with silence and ignorance, as there was a lack of narrative structures regarding sex and love. She knew sex before marriage was not done and never wanted to cross the boundaries of her family’s moral storyscape. When she found out she was pregnant, she started to think about what she wanted. Her boyfriend disappeared. Her parents eventually supported her. She felt very unhappy with her pregnancy, found it hard to accept it and hid it from others. Her mother told her she had to accept it as this was her life now. This second phase in her life reveals the conflict between two narrative worlds: her mother’s stance and her own story. After the birth, she was happy with her child and was able to continue her education, thanks to the help of her parents. When she fell pregnant again by her new boyfriend, she did not want to go through the whole experience again and had an abortion. Her parents never found out, her boyfriend disagreed with it and she found it hard to justify it as a Christian, but she feels she made the right choice. The third phase of her life begins with her continuing to live in her family’s storyscape, out of convenience. She again had to account for her choices to her moral audiences (her boyfriend and her parents). She went against their wishes and her own religion. She had created her own narrative, in which her parents had no place. The taboo and silence mirrored her youth. In this new storyscape, she was fully responsible and choose what was right for her, despite the social and moral pressure: her narrative agency had matured.

What have we learned?

The different stories girls tell about their pregnancies are embedded in the storyscape of their social environment, which offers a limited number of narratives. How the meaning of teenage pregnancy is constructed depends on stigma and social norms. In the strategic negotiation of that meaning and the process of making choices, the girls have to navigate the judgments of their (boy)friends and family, and the social discourses regarding teenage pregnancy, motherhood and abortion. The narratives of girls falling pregnant unplanned reflect the discourses of control, responsibility and risk derived from neoliberal ideology as well as the discourses on youth, destiny and ignorance. Girls draw on distinct concepts of responsibility in their narratives about their choice (continue or terminate the pregnancy). Three moral discourses stand out in their stories about making the right decision:

•     The belief that kids are a gift, which makes abortion immoral.
•     The belief that kids have the right to be raised in a stable environment, which makes parenthood immoral.
•     The belief that you have to be capable of looking after yourself before becoming a mother.

The embodiment of pregnancy also plays a significant role since it can make it harder to choose abortion.

The concept of storyscapes demonstrates how girls are constrained by their embeddedness in various storyscapes, defined by usually contrasting audiences. Developing their own narrative agency is often impeded by the limitations of their boyfriends’ and parents’ storyscapes. Girls have to negotiate storyscapes of female vulnerability, dependency, subordination, individual agency and responsibility. Taboos, like not talking about sexuality, are another constraining storyscape. Teenage pregnancy offers possibilities to girls, as it puts them in charge of making a decision. Girls who decide to continue their pregnancy can see it as a breakthrough: being a mother provides social status and a new start. The decision for abortion can also be a turning point, as it provides resistance to pressure from people and storyscapes (a sign of personal growth).

What is the conclusion of this study?

The Netherlands is known for being a liberal country, where women have extensive rights regarding reproduction and sexual health. However, there is a clash between these rights and the storyscapes. The life stories of the girls reveal how difficult it is for them to gain narrative agency over their own lives, due to storyscapes of blame, individual responsibility, female dependency and moral judgments. Scholars advocate for a change in health policies, in which the stigmatization of teenage pregnancy should be avoided. Sexual education should focus on various stories about teenage pregnancy, parenthood and abortion, instead of merely linking it to limited aspirations and social exclusion. This offers new storyscapes and helps negotiating narrative agency.